Anyone who takes the time to look around at the scene can see it. I am not saying that we need to get rid of the drugs. The drugs in the scene aren't the actual problem, though lets be honest, we all have to admit that alot of problems do come to play because of or with the help of drugs. Cleaning the drugs from our scene's veins is not going to help the heart.
Firstly, I know I'll get shat on for saying this, but the drugs and the scene are one and the same. They are so intertwined it is impossible to split them. Anyone who believes that electronic music would be the same without drugs and vice versa are deluding themselves. I love the music, started listening to it before I took drugs ra ra all the prequalifications, but the simple fact remains that many, many, many people get into the music because of the drugs. The phrases "oh my god, I didn't get this music til I did drugs" and "everybody likes techno after their first pill" are too common to be ignored. Electronic music has also given drug use a legitimacy that I doubt would have evolved otherwise.
We all have to come together and realize that the Underground rave culture was not started, nor was it ever meant to be: a haven for slinging, fashion show runway, or a way to show your ass in rebellion to the system. The Underground came about as an expression of who we were as a group. True in the beginning there was Peace Love Unity and Respect. But, that was because as a general rule 'ravers' were an open minded group. We knew that all of us were different but when we were in the clubs, warehouses, fields, houses, anywhere we could squeeze into before the cops showed up... we were all the same... Kids out to have a good time, listen to our types of music, and express who we are simply by the way that we moved our bodies.
And you think this many people would feel this way without the drug use... OK... IMHO most people wouldn't feel free enough to be open minded, listen to new music and accept others for being different without the mind expanding qualities of the drugs.
How many of you out there have ever had to go through checkpoints to get to a party? Do you remember back then the sense of unity that you felt, or the general air of respect for one an another once you were there? Of course you do that is because it was there... but the thing is it was natural. No one really went around spouting off about the PLUR and shit. The feeling didn't have to be classified it was just known and respected... that is what made it real. For those of you that were back then in those days, look back on it and can you pinpoint around when the feeling started leaving the scene. Does the time when it left your scene coincide with the uprising of the PLUR people? I know for a fact that mine did, as well as alot of the kids from around the country I have talked to. For some reason people have a problem with excepting that the PLUR might still not be real. Face it kids. Look around at your scene, are people boasting more than they believe?
Yep, most people found it happened about 3 years after they started taking pills. This is usually how long the ecstacy 'honeymoon' lasts. I do agree with you that it has dropped off over the time I've been partying, but it is more of a constant thing than just happening out of nowhere. In fact in my experience the PLUR vibe has gotten stronger over the last 18 months. I think it is much more a pesonal thing. When you first start going out, you eventually get a big group together of people you know when you see out, generally a lot have been partying around the same amount of time as you, so when it's still all shiny and new to you all, the vibe is much more upbeat. Then as you start to see people fade from the scene, people around you get jaded, you start to see things in a different light. You see kids younger than you coming to parties being all "plurry" and you think "insincere wankers, you don't even know what it's all about" (sound familiar?), when all these kids are doing are the same things you were doing a few years earlier. (Perhaps you can't admit to yourself you did some of the oft embarressing things we do...)
The truth of the matter is that no matter how you think about it, our scene is dying. All the things that once made this a great thing to be apart of are being replaced with this feeling of commercialism and egos. The only way we are going to get back what we once had is to say fuck to this Peace Love Unity Respect preaching and follow a new motto: Please Let Us Rave. Be the first, if you have to be the only; that doesn't care about looking cool, doesn't look at a party as a market for shopping for drugs, and is there because they want to dance, interact with others, and enjoy what time that they have for fun in their lives. Look at it this way people, it doesn't matter what Society thinks goes on or what they think or scene is all about... what matters is what 'we' do and what 'we' are all about. Goto the party and have fun. Why they hell do you think we call it a party?!?!?!
Please Let Us Rave - As long as you all rave to my set of ideals...
I'll stick with Peace Love Understanding Respect thanks, I think it's a much better ideal to strive for.
The bigger your pants and the bigger your attitude.... think about that folks... this is from someone who is only there really for the damn music. Someone who goes to the parties because she can go and dance and hear music that she likes at the same time. Yet, a supposed 'newbie' to the scene knows what the whole thing is about more than most any of you so called 'old skool' kids do. Do you have any reason why that is? I can tell you simply... she is pure... she doesn't have any of the preconceived notions or 'requirements' that most of you seem to come into or try to impose onto the scene. The point is why can't you all understand this. When you label something you are debasing it. Look at what you did. PLUR so to speak was always present in the rave scene. Then what happened, you put a label on it... You named your demon and now it is rising up and snatching the soul from the scene and dragging it down to hell. (Metaphorically speaking)
Wank wank wank wank wank. You say she is pure because she doesn't have any preconceived notions. I'll cop that, nice theory, now apply it to yourself.
Don't any of you run off thinking that I am just harping on anti-drug nonsense. I too use to use drugs at parties and very rarely I still do. But, I did it for one reason... So that I could dance longer. If I was at a party and didn't have my drugs yet or wasn't going to get any that night. I didn't just stand around. I danced.
Now you've gotten me confused, this whole rant seems like you've been trying to say you're better than other because you don't need the drugs... You previously made a comment about people just standing around not dancing... Maybe the people at that party were waiting to see someone else? Maybe they were all NOT taking drugs and didn't want to dance to that act because they were saving their energy for the person they had come to see? Maybe they came early so they could hang around and talk to their mates or LISTEN to the other acts that were playing...
Do you remember the days of the true candy ravers? Hell, I use to be one... I was an eye candy raver but still I fit the classification for a while. Candy ravers were great. These were kids who came to the party to promote a good feeling. Handing out things from blow pops, pixie stixs, gum, hell to even Popsicles. I always gave away toys to people. Yet, nowadays the swarms of candy ravers are gone. Gone because nowadays they couldn't be giving out candy and treats without ravers staring them down, wondering what they wanted for being nice. Sickening, fucking sickening. Nice kids driven out of the scene or just their ways from your paranoid, bad ass attitude.[/b[
Holy free holy! Maybe all the Kandy Kids are still out there, but don't go to as much effort now or have indeed left the scene because of all the SELF RIGHTEOUS WANKERS like you telling them how much cooler they are because they're too jaded to believe in PLUR. How in a rant about PLUR can you praise Kandy ravers?
Hell, maybe I am just too old for all of this. I mean I am 22, about seven or eight years older than most of the ravers I see nowadays.
I'd been holding back on a few comments til now... 22??? You think most people you see out at parties are 14 or 15??? What freakin parties are these? I go out with a fairly large group of people, who all get as PLURed up as anyone out there, and they are almost all older than you, in some cases much, much older.
Well, I came on to bluelight today to see what was happening... I'm kind of glad I got to participate in yet another one of the conversations that get brought up every 6 months or so.
I appreciate your sentiment, that PLUR is meaningless to a lot of people. But I would rather live in a world where people believed in PLUR as a concept but were not so good at implementing it, to one where the ideals of Peace, Love, Understanding and Respect were considered passe`.
So from someone who has been around the scene for a little while now, you are welcome to your opinion, but you are just one of the nouveau jaded, coming up with the same arguments I've been hearing for the best part of a decade. If you were willing to truely open your heart to PLUR, you would find it is still alive and well and will be long after you've settled down into life after raving 
